Friday Tri--Gear

If you're interested, here is a description of my first book sale over at Jim Hines' livejournal:
http://jimhines.livejournal.com/585984.html

And for today, a list of gear that I recommend for doing a beginning triathlon:

Swim:
1. Speedo Hydrospex goggles (my favorite kind and the only kind I have bought for years)
2. Nylon (NOT LYCRA) racing suit with thin shoulder straps (my daughters always complain that I buy "ugly" swimsuits. I don't care what my swimsuit looks like. Only how it functions. I always buy from www.swimoutlet.com)
3. Swim cap. (I prefer the silicone variety. The lycra ones are more comfortable, but only last about ten minutes in the water--like lycra suits. The latex ones are cheap, but they break fairly often. The silicone one I have has lasted since 2006, which for $10 and the amount of swimming I do is a good deal.)
3. Sunscreen/Bug spray (depending on the race conditions, but I always put them on before I go into the water. Sometimes I have a mini bottle to put in a pocket to reapply for later, but this is only in half-Iron or longer distances.)

Optional: Wetsuit and body glide (I didn't buy a wetsuit or a road bike/tri bike until I had finished a full year of triathlon racing). Also, hair elastic, which I put on before I put on my swim cap and never mess with after.

Bike :
1. Socks (Yeah, I'm not like the professionals who go sockless. I like to wear a nice pair of nylon, breathable running socks. I don't wear cycling socks for some reason--they are too tight for me.)
2. Shoes (For the first year of racing, I used my running shoes)
3. Helmet (A comfortable one--try it on in the store and make sure it fits properly)
4. Tri shorts (Or you can buy a trisuit to wear under your wetsuit or alone, but I have to say I didn't like having to unzip and get entirely naked to go to the bathroom, so I prefer two piece outfits. Also I don't like bike shorts. I don't see guys in the Tour de France wearing them and I think the padding is annoying.)
5. A decent bike seat--not the one you will get as the standard at the store. (I recommend "butterly" seats or anything that has a cut out in the center.)
6. A race belt with race number pre-attached so you can just throw it on (On occasion, I have been known to forget this and then am forced to pin my number on my swim outfit under my wetsuit. It works, but it's not what I recommend).
7. Biking glasses (regular sunglasses did not work for me to keep out bugs and dust. I spent a full summer with streaming, teary eyes and yes, biking glasses are expensive. But for $100, no more tears was a bargain.)
8. A fix-it pack on your bike which includes a spare tube (at least one), a pump and a compressed air cylinder.
9. A water bottle cage (though I recommend you put Gatorade in it)
10. A bike computer, mostly to tell you your speed and cadence. (I don't spend the big bucks for a power meter at this point.)

Optional: gu (I hate gu, but have taught myself to eat it anyway. If you want a cliff bar or something else, that's fine, but gu will always go down and never makes me sick. Plus even when I am working at maximum, I can swallow it without chewing and interfering with my breathing. But this is only necessary in Olympic distance races, not in Sprint distance.)

Run:
1. Shoes (possibly the same as the ones you wear on the bike)

That's it, really. I'm very particular about my race gear these days. I have strong opinions on bike saddles and goggles and swim suits. I have worn the same pair of running shoes for about 6 years of racing now (Asics Nimbus), though of course you should wear whichever pair of shoes feels best on your feet.

What I don't bother with:
1. A heart rate monitor. I think this is useful sometime between the beginner stage and before the advanced stage, when you are trying to figure out how it is supposed to feel while you are doing various race distances so that you can keep going at that rate.
2. GPS monitor. I had one of these and never much used it. I have my own methods for figuring out how far I've gone and by now I know how many strokes of swimming it takes to finish a mile in open water (1400) and how many strides per mile (700-800), plus I've never been on a bike course where there aren't some sort of mile markers.
3. Towels. I know lots of people bring towels and they wipe off their feet after the swim, but I never take time for this and I honestly have never noticed sand or dirt bothering me while on the bike or run.
4. Run hats. They ALWAYS fall off when I wear them, and even when I know I should, I can't stand to keep them on for long. They turn into more of a liability than an advantage.
5. Different outfits for swimming, biking, and running. If I wear a swimsuit on the swim, I just throw on shorts on top. A long-sleeved shirt if necessary in colder weather, but I can't remember the last time that happened, and I race through November.
6. Sweatbands. (It will drip off naturally, and sweat is there to keep you cooler.)
7. Snot cloths. (Sorry if that is too blunt, but I used to carry these around because my nose runs while biking. I've learned to just blow it on the road. I have not yet learned to pee on the bike.)

The hardest part for most people doing a triathlon for the first time is the transitions. First of all, remembering what you're going to do in the transition, and then the feeling of your body as you move from one sport to the next. For me, I am fairly confident about my transitions, but I still start thinking about the steps that will take me from swim to bike or bike to run about five minutes before I finish. I just repeat the list over and over until I'm finished with it. But yeah, the first few triathlons I did stupid stuff like started biking with my goggles still on, or without my helmet. It just happens. You'll survive. The volunteers there will help you. And I'm embarrassed how many times I have started biking with my helmet on the wrong way around. Still.

As for the feeling, the only way through that is to get used to it. The first time I stood up out of the water and tried to run in a triathlon, I literally fell down. You've been horizontal for a long time and it's weird to be upright. You get used to it. The same is true of the bike to run transition. Your legs feel like lead and you can't figure out how to get them to start running. You can barely walk. The best way to deal with both of these is to do lots of "bricks" in your training, so you get used to making your body change movement without batting an eye. Part of this is also learning to set the right pace at each sport so you can continue on, and learning to slow a little before the end so that you can do your transition properly. These days, I can do a swim to bike transition in under two minutes with a wetsuit to get out of, and a bike to run transition, including changing shoes, in under one minute. But the first time, it was about five minutes and three minutes.